Firebird Rising
by Komadori-Chan
Summary: Long ago, there was a lion cub who made a human life in the World of Men. This was the legend of Aslan's Heir...a legend that should have nothing to do with Raphael Meir, Miriam Hadil and Ariel Lasan...but does. Takes place alongside the book series.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

**This story takes place alongside the Narnia books, using some elements from both the BBC and Disney movies based off of them as well as flourishes and characters of my own creation. I might make some religious references with characters or plot separate of the books in this story, purely for my own enjoyment, and I hope not to offend any people by doing so. The Chronicles of Narnia are not mine, but the story line and all of the characters you don't recognize from the books are mine. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I'm having writing it! Please read and review!**

* * *

**_Prologue_**

It was night in Narnia, and a large group of Animal friends were gathered at the home of Mr. Squirrel and his family, celebrating the birth of his wife Mrs. Squirrel's fifth son. Within there was warmth, laughter and tales of the Old Narnia…a night of fantastic joy, hope and festivities.

If only the Animals within could have known that in the cold, looking in on the festivities, was a pack of wolves, their eyes hungrily looking in on the warmth of the Squirrels' home. Perhaps, then, they would've had a hint that their happiness would be snuffed out, just like their candles blown out by the blast of cold air that announced the wolves' entrance.

No. Alas, they did not. The wolves of the White Witch's Secret Police gave the guests on the Squirrels' party no mercy, instead tearing both the house and them to bloody shreds. All that the beasts left with the helpless Animals' remains was a written proclamation of treachery toward all those within…for, yes…the Squirrels and their friends had been celebrating the time of Aslan. The only sign of this now, however, were the fragmented pages torn from books in the Squirrel home now fluttering away out the unhinged door into the path of the icy wind.

* * *

_**Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight**_

* * *

_** When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone**_

_**Sits at Cair Paravel in throne**_

* * *

_** The Cub spoke to Aslan, It said, "I wish to see the land where Animals have ne'er been…where Men are brave without aid of sword or spell…where such Saviors as our Lord Digory and Lady Polly are born. I long to be with Them, see Them…live as Them."**_

_**And Aslan said to the Cub**_

* * *

_** In Narnia the Beasts lived in great peace and joy under the magic of the Tree of Protection, ruled justly by their Human rulers King Frank the Modest and Queen Helen the Impassioned, where the cold touch of Jadis could not reach. All the while the Great Lion watched over the land of Narnia with eyes forever casting to the skies, where any true believer could still see the golden shine of the shooting star that had carried the little Cub, Aslan's Heir, away from the world. **_


	2. Chapter 1: Hiding in France

**_Chapter One: Hiding in France_**

This story starts out like many other stories have started before, in a country where danger lurks, around a time in our world's history most will long to forget, being told through a pair of honest, young eyes.

These eyes, dark brown and innocent, were at this moment staring up at the cracks on the deathly white ceiling of the hidden cellar in the Meir family home. The doorway and partnering staircase to the cellar was hidden behind the Meirs' fireplace, which could be opened like a door by twisting an ivory elephant ornament attached to the brick mantelpiece.

The brown eyes, as well as the heart-shaped face, youthfully pink cheeks and long pencil-straight strawberry blond hair accompanying it, were reflected in the stained-glass-shard mobile hanging near the oil lamp on a dresser, bounding multi-colored lights around the room. The reflection, to some possible observer, gave a full image of Ariel Lasan, ten-year-old Austrian girl who had left her family behind to hide from the Nazis in France.

Ariel, at this moment, was dwelling on a dream she had had the previous night, as well as many other nights in the past: a dream of animals singing and cheering as they danced around a shining golden lion in a fresh green land like nothing she'd ever seen before. The lion's eyes were focused on her, but not fiercely or hungrily like a normal lion's most likely would; instead the creature's warm amber eyes were solemn and almost sad, and throughout the dream a fearsome yet beautiful song would flow from the lion. Inside the dream Ariel would almost know what the words were…but as soon as she woke up, the words would be a memory she couldn't quite seize enough to recount. Something about the lion from her dream gave Ariel a sense of…security, as odd as it sounded. After all, it couldn't be tame; the way the creature held itself could communicate that easily to anyone. Nonetheless its presence in her dreams almost involuntarily warmed Ariel's heart, as if the lion was a fond memory from Ariel's early childhood that still brought back fond feelings even though it was mostly forgotten in the normality of aging.

It was good to have one familiar, secure thing present when the entire world was whirling around so fast you couldn't see straight. Ariel's world had shifted many times, from peaceful Austria, to Nazi-threatened Austria, to Nazi-conquered Austria, to minority-persecuting Austria, to peaceful France, to nobly warring France, to Nazi-threatened France, and, currently, to Nazi-conquered France.

Two years, Ariel thought to herself. It had been two years since she'd seen Austria.

Time seemed to move very quickly…though, while it was happening, Ariel found it to be very slow indeed. But now, looking back, it seemed as if time had made entire years go by in minutes.

Ariel thought to herself that it could be a much longer time before she saw Austria again, especially with France recently surrendering to German forces and the Nazis taking over the country. However, the redhead was an optimist, and she reminded herself that Mr. Meir, her temporary brown-haired guardian restricted to a wheelchair, was a very rich, respected man and the secret cellar in his house probably was one of the very safest places to hide until Great Britain came to help. And Ariel did hope Britain would come soon.

A pessimist like Ariel's father might have told his daughter that she shouldn't assume too much, but the war was already so dark and grim that optimism and hope was all that could really keep one going sometimes.

Ariel's father, Mr. Lasan, was an overly cautious sort of fellow, with a tall stature, glasses that gave him a well-read air and a slowly receding brown hairline. He was something Ariel heard was called a "Freemason." Although she wasn't quite sure what that was since Mr. Lasan had rarely told her of it, Ariel did know that the Nazis disliked them and that Mr. Lasan had many friends around the world who also were Freemasons (Mr. Meir was one). Ariel smiled fondly as she remembered the special smell of tobacco smoke and coffee that would hit her nose whenever she sat in his lap as a child and he would read to her. She almost wished that she had _Alice in Wonderland_ with her so she could try and remember how he sounded when he imitated all of the characters' voices.

Mrs. Lasan, a slightly plump woman with a warm face and very curly, silky black hair, was supposed to have left Austria with her daughter considering her Jewish ancestry, but she was a stubborn woman despite her extreme kindness, and refused to leave Mr. Lasan's side. She, like Ariel, was an optimist, and was considered to be a very good Christian woman, often cooking for food kitchens and giving money to charity during the holidays to pay for firewood. Mrs. Lasan constantly reminded people that belief in God would aid them through any sort of toil they might go through, and most everyone she knew could both scorn and admire her for such faith. Anyone who knew Ariel and Mrs. Lasan could immediately tell they were related by the emotional similarities between them.

Ariel sometimes had problems thinking of leaving her parents behind. The longer she spent away from them, the more they seemed to stick in her mind in solid images, as if they were photographs, never changing and forever smiling lifelessly.

Fortunately Ariel was not alone down in the Meir family's cellar; she shared it with three other fugitives from the Nazis. Two of the fugitives, who were currently sitting at the dinner table in the middle of the room, were two that had come with Ariel from Austria.

The first of the two, reading a newspaper with the date **June 25, 1940**, was the uptight, blue-eyed young man with slicked-back blond hair known to Ariel as Ulrich. Across the table with his hand resting on Ulrich's was Johan, a brown-haired young man with a tough-looking tanned face, yet very gentle hazel eyes.

Ulrich was an ex-police officer who had turned into a very liberal civil rights activist, and now seemed to find conspiracy in everything; this made him a real damper at parties, but it meant he was accepting enough to believe in anything, even other worlds and secret organizations. He was on the short side and stocky, with well-toned muscles. Johan had been an assistant pharmacist in Austria before the owner of the pharmacy turned Nazi and fired him. His physique made him look menacing to strangers, and could even scare off thugs picking on people with a simple look; to those that did know him, however, Johan could be compared to a very lovable teddy bear. Ulrich and Johan were life partners and had been kicked out of their homes after telling their respective families of their relationship. Mrs. Lasan, who had known Johan from church, had immediately let him and Ulrich stay at the Lasan family penthouse, having them pay their keep with helping them with groceries or taking care of Ariel. When the Nazis first invaded Austria, the two young men accompanied the then-eight-year-old Ariel on a train to France. Ulrich and Johan had planned to stay with the Meir family until the Lasans sent word that they and Ariel could return to Austria, but obviously that never happened and now they were firmly in hiding. Ariel saw them like older brothers, and Johan and Ulrich likewise treated Ariel as if she were their own.

The other fugitive Ariel was holed up with was a thirteen-year-old girl currently playing Cat's Cradle on her bed on the opposite wall. She had curly black hair, warmly tanned skin and bright green eyes, and was named Miriam Hadil. Miriam was of a Gypsy tribe from a poor area of Poland, and had been sneaked into a box moving onto a baggage train that was then shipped straight to France. Ariel didn't even want to ponder how many times Miriam must've been flipped over and what not on the way, but somehow Miriam's box got safely into the Meirs' hands and she had stayed with them ever since. Miriam was distrustful, clever and a bit selfish. Ariel, however, thought she probably had good reason, considering how much more persecution and dislike Miriam had had to deal with in her life as a Gypsy than she'd had to for being half-Jewish; Gypsies probably had had to learn how to escape and steal at a very young age.

Miriam hadn't seen her home in _three_ years, Ariel reminded herself to deflect her self-pity at being away from her family for so long.

"Ella?" Johan's low voice rippled in slight concern.

Johan had a tendency to nickname anyone close to him. Ariel he called "Ella", playing off of the last syllable of her name. For her overly maternal fashion to family as well as strangers, Mrs. Lasan had appropriately been called "Mama" (but it had to be said in a roguish, Spanish-accented way: if said the way a baby would, it lost all meaning). Mr. Lasan had teasingly been known as "Sergeant," since it was the only thing Johan could think of to call him that still displayed immense respect (fortunately Mr. Lasan found it amusing). Ariel had heard that Johan had given Ulrich a nickname too, but Ulrich had, through a very heavy blush, insisted that Johan never repeat that nickname in public. Only Miriam, Mr. and Mrs. Meir and the Meirs' son Raphael had been honored enough to not get a nickname, not because Johan disliked them, but because he really wasn't creative enough to think of anything special for people he didn't know very well.

"Yeah?" Ariel said, looking away from the ceiling for the first time in what felt like minutes but was more like an hour.

"You okay?"

Ariel nodded, smiling at Johan brightly. "Oh sure…just thinking."

Johan smiled back warmly. "Careful there, Ella…do that too much and you'll end up like the young Mr. Meir."

Miriam scoffed in disgust at the mention of Raphael, before moving back to her Cat's Cradle as to distract herself.

Raphael Meir was of a very studious, forcefully logical and sour breed of over-achievers. His father's wealth, good family and vast property gave Raphael every reason to want to be the best in everything, and Raphael sure took the opportunity. He was fifteen, two years older than Miriam and five more than Ariel, and seemed to enjoy studying and researching more than anything else in the world. His character was already that of an extremely strict and tedious college professor: a greatly cynical and close-minded perfectionist, constantly picking people apart for their flaws. Ariel found Raphael a bit fussy, but she wasn't too bothered by it since she didn't see him on a regular enough basis; besides, being the optimist she was, she encouraged herself with the thought there was probably much more to Raphael than what first appeared. Miriam, however, who was of a very impatient sort, found Raphael's pessimism and condescension annoying.

At that moment, as if prompted by the discussion of him, a scream of a door hinge and a thundering of feet running down the stairs signaled the arrival of the light-brown-haired teenager that was Raphael Meir. He looked much like his father, although his father was handicapped with polio and stayed in a wheelchair and Raphael stood healthily. His blue eyes, very unlike his mother's friendly orbs of the same color, were dull as if he were being forced to do an extremely tedious chore, a chore which was represented by the bag of groceries in his hand.

"Here's your weekly victuals," Raphael muttered in a disgruntled fashion.

He dropped the bag on the table carelessly so that it almost tipped over; fortunately Johan was able to grab it before all of its contents spilled onto the floor. Ulrich looked up from his newspaper, surprised by the noise, before he nodded in a silent form of gratitude and went back to reading.

Impatient Miriam, on the other hand, gave Raphael a very sour look and snapped sarcastically, "My, you show us such _kindness_…I would think you learned your manners from a _jailer_."

"_Miriam_-" Ariel started worriedly. She didn't like it when people were fighting, and she really didn't think she'd like watching two fiery people like Raphael and Miriam go at it.

Raphael, however, had already glared back at Miriam and paid Ariel no mind. "Just because you're living in my house doesn't mean I have to treat you like guests in a hotel. You should be _grateful_ that my parents are hiding you; we'd be much better off turning you all in now…then maybe the Nazis wouldn't kill _us_ too."

Ariel looked down at her shoes, feeling both hurt and guilty. Ulrich stiffened angrily and put down his newspaper, ready to chastise the teenager for saying something so cruel, but Johan tightened his grip around Ulrich's hand to tell him to be silent.

"Raphael, you're not the only one who's scared for your loved ones," Johan murmured in his deep, soothing voice. "We too have people we are scared for…we haven't heard from our loved ones in a very long time."

"Likely because they're already dead," retorted Raphael. "I wonder if there's anyone the Nazis haven't killed already that isn't you all."

That statement made a sharp stab at Ariel's heart; the red-haired preteen hadn't considered such a terrible thing. And no one in the room missed that flash of horror and grief that went through her innocent eyes.

"Shut up!" Miriam said sharply, her green eyes flaring. "Stop acting like you know everything. The Nazis have not won yet…and you are in no position to be talking to us about giving up hope. I don't see_you_ hiding in a cellar from people who want to kill you because of your race or how you live!"

"And I don't see _you_ trying to raise above your place as a sewer rat to become something more people respect!" Raphael growled back spitefully.

The fight likely would've escalated even more, but the sudden sound of violent knocking on the front door upstairs made everyone in the cellar freeze.

Both Ulrich and Johan shot to their feet, their eyes narrowing and their heads tilting up as they struggled to listen better. Silence seemed to fill the entire house, echoing in their ears painfully as the young people down in the cellar waited for some hint as to what was happening.

At last, there was a sound of a door slowly closing and finally clicking shut, telling the fugitives and Raphael that Mr. or Mrs. Meir had closed the fireplace door so that the passage was hidden from sight. Raphael's face showed he really was nervous being locked downstairs with the fugitives his parents were hiding naïve to what was going on upstairs. Then, after a moment of hesitant silence, there was the sound of the large front door creaking open.

Everyone in the cellar seemed to be holding his or her breath; Ariel's eyes wandered around the ceiling, as if praying she might find there some clue as to what was happening upstairs.

There was an indistinct chorus of different voices: one of them was Mr. Meir, but he was almost inaudible amongst the confusion of sound.

Miriam was about to get up from the bed, but Ulrich held up a hand to her to tell her not to move yet, for fear that the bed springs would make noise if she got up too quickly. The ex-police officer exchanged a concerned look with Johan, before the dark-haired of the two silently gestured to the small bronze bell on the wall beside Ariel's bed.

Said bronze bell had a rope that wound up along the wall and through the ceiling to the upper floor. The end of the rope stuck out underneath the rug in the main hall, just ready for some foot to step firmly on and pull across the floor so that the bell rang in warning to the people downstairs to run out of the back-way.

The five seemed to wait with baited breath, all sets of eyes, two blue, one hazel, one green and one brown, focused solely on the bell and all sets of legs ready to spring forward to run for the back-door.

There was a loud, angry shout in German…a loud _thud_ of metal and a body hitting the floor…and then Mrs. Meir crying out "_Lester_!" in such a terrified tone Raphael's head shot upright in alarm.

"_Father_," he breathed, his eyes filled with nothing short of terror.

The brown-haired teenager bolted for the door to the stairs, only to have Johan and Ulrich both jump on him and pull him back.

"_No_!" Ulrich hissed at him. "Do you want to get us _all_ killed?"

"They can _have_ you, damn it!" Raphael shouted back as desperately as a child, struggling against the men's grip. "Don't hurt him! _Don't hurt him_!"

"_Shut up_,your idiot,you'll kill us!" Miriam yelled at him angrily, hitting him on the head angrily with one hand and covering his mouth with the other.

Ariel painfully watched Raphael struggling against Ulrich's strong arms and Miriam's word-stifling hand, almost wishing she could just jump out and let the Nazis take her so the poor Mr. Meir would be left alone. Despite that wish, she knew full well that if the Nazis saw any of the fugitives or the secret passage, everyone in the house would be killed or sent to a concentration camp.

As her eyes lay on the squirming Raphael, the restraining Ulrich and the angrily snapping Miriam, they then involuntarily moved to look past them…and then they widened in unadulterated fear.

"_The bell_."

Her hollow, terrified whisper was enough to make everyone in the room freeze where they stood. All the other pairs of eyes in unison shot to look at the wall.

The bell was feebly ringing in its new slow back-and-forth movement. Someone was pulling the rope to the bell as gently as they could as not to have the people upstairs hear the bell when walking by the fireplace.

At first no one could do anything but stare in horror at the bell. Then all at once, everyone started moving again.

"_Come on_!" Ulrich said urgently, grabbing Raphael by the scruff of his neck and Miriam by the arm toward the backdoor. Johan likewise grabbed Ariel by the hand, though his grip was visibly much gentler than Ulrich's with Raphael and Miriam.

Ulrich slammed his side into the back-door until he finally successfully knocked it down, before he pushed Raphael and Miriam out the door.

"Take them and run as far away as you can," he barked orders at Johan. "Don't stop until you find someplace to hide. Don't wait for me."

"What will you do?" Johan demanded.

"I'll keep them away from your trail as long as I can," Ulrich answered firmly.

"Ulrich, you can't fight them _alone_!" Johan insisted, his hazel eyes sparkling in grief and worry. "If you stay here, you'll die, or _worse_!"

Ulrich gave a very feeble smile. "Hey…Mama always said faith in God would help us through anything, right?"

Johan looked as if he was about to cry.

Ulrich pulled Johan close to him. It did look strange to have such a small, stocky man hold his arms around such a tall man, but the action only seemed to further show the sadness in the separation, to have the small Ulrich hold the large Johan so tightly. Johan had his head placed on top of Ulrich's, breathing heavily as tears ran down and off of his face, and Ulrich tightened his grip around him.

"We'll be together again, Johan," Ulrich murmured, both comfortingly and solemnly, as Johan's tears trickled down his head and onto his own face. "I promise you."

And despite his tears of which undoubtedly were tears of farewell, Johan bit through his grief and nodded. The two men shared a short kiss as if to reassure one another, before Johan grabbed Raphael and Ariel's hands and pulled them toward the woods behind the Meir house.

"Come on, this way! Follow me!"

Ariel at first tried to look back at Ulrich as he grabbed a bar of wood from the fallen door to fight with, but it became too difficult when she was being tugged quickly through a rough terrain in the other direction, so she had to look away.

Through trees, rocks and grass the three children and Johan ran, being almost too terrified to look back and looking all around in a desperate attempt to find somewhere to hide.

All at once, though, they were forced to turn around again when their ears identified angry German shouting through the din. Amongst the shouting was the horrible sound of vicious Doberman barking.

"They're after us!" Miriam realized, running alongside Johan as quickly as a scared deer. "There must've been a group coming to investigate the back!"

"_Damn it_!" Johan muttered to himself under his breath.

He looked at each of them as they approached the thickening woods, before he yanked Raphael and Ariel in front of him and pushing them forward.

"Keep running, and don't look back! No matter what you do, keep running!"

"But Johan-" Ariel tried to protest.

"_GO_!" Johan roared in both a terrifying and terrified voice.

Miriam grabbed Ariel's hand and the three youngsters began running once more, despite Ariel's desperate attempts to again look back toward her friend trying to defend them from the Nazis. It was hard for Ariel and Raphael to keep up with Miriam, as she was much faster then them, but they were both too scared to even think of trying to slow down or rest.

"_There_!" Miriam cried suddenly, pointing ahead of them.

The subject of the Gypsy girl's pointing was a green and brown lake with water reeds and weeds growing along the banks that was hidden amongst the woodland trees.

"We have to hide in there!" said Miriam.

Raphael began sputtering madly. "Are you _crazy_? That water's _filthy_!"

"I'm well _aware_ of that, Mr. Stuffy-Pants-Researcher!" Miriam snarled back. "But the dogs won't be able to track our scent if we're in water!"

"But-"

But before Raphael could finish arguing, Miriam had yanked both him and Ariel into the deep dirty lake, flooding their clothes with heavy, freezing water.

"N-_no_!_No_!"

Raphael immediately started flapping around in the water frantically like a maniac, struggling to grab a reed or something and pull himself back onto shore.

"Shut up, you idiot, they'll hear you!" Miriam hissed at him, her emerald eyes filled with anger and fear as they darted back around the landscape.

"I can't…I can't-"

Raphael couldn't finish, for his words had been stifled with water. Ariel was getting very frightened, knowing the Nazis would easily be able to hear his shouts, but also worrying about what was wrong with the young Meir. He didn't seem like he was being a brat; he seemed desperate…_fearful_. Almost as if he couldn't…

Ariel's eyes widened as Raphael fell under the water.

"_He can't swim_!" she cried in alarm.

"_WHAT_?" shouted Miriam in equal shock.

Ariel immediately took a huge breath and dived underneath the water, and was quickly followed by Miriam. Their ears echoed with the hollow sound made by the water pressure as they swam further down. The water, though it had looked very dirty on top, almost seemed to clear as Ariel struggled to find Raphael underneath. Bubbles drifted around her as Ariel kicked herself down toward the sinking, ashen-faced Raphael.

Finally she could grab Raphael's hand and tugged on it a couple of times before Miriam was able to seize his other hand. Both girls pulled up on Raphael's hands desperately in tandem, right then not thinking about the Nazis or what might happen once they revealed themselves above the surface.

When Ariel moved to pull Raphael back up, however, she suddenly found something hitting her head obstructing her from air. Her mind was clouded: all she could think of was the lack of oxygen and the need to get to the surface.

Ariel slammed against the barrier, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and arm as she frantically tried to get above the water. The water seemed to become colder and colder, almost freezing her reason as well as her body. Miriam looked like she was running out of breath as she pounded the barrier with her tanned fist: the cold and lack of oxygen, however, were taking a toll on her strength, and her punches seemed too weak to be of any help. Raphael, who had already been almost drowning when Ariel and Miriam dived down to get him, looked to Ariel to be as white as death.

_Please_, Ariel's mind seemed to plead fragmentally with the strange barrier. Please break…air…Miriam…Raphael…save them…

And as if hearing her desperate, fragile thoughts, a large flare of bright, golden light seemed to burst forth from nowhere, surrounding them in its warm embrace. The light seemed to heat the numbing cold water, and at last the barrier gave way and, amongst a large splash, Ariel and Miriam yanked the young Meir above the lake once more.

All three of them breathed hard for a long minute, relieved to have air again, Raphael coughing as he struggled to force the water from his lungs.

"Miriam…you…are the _stupidest_ girl…I have ever had the pleasure of meeting," the wet Raphael wheezed as he collapsed on the bank beside the lake, pleased to be on land once again.

Miriam looked disgusted. "_That's_ the thanks we get for saving your hide?"

"Saving my hide so that it'll go to the Nazis," Raphael muttered sourly. "Swell."

"Ariel!" Miriam whined in a slightly bratty fashion. "Ariel, are you _really_ okay with him not thanking you for helping him?"

Ariel had not heard any of the exchange between the two. Her wide brown eyes had been too busy moving over the scenery around them.

It was a wood like the one they'd left, and yet it was a wood completely foreign to France: a wood with intricate-branched trees covered in snow, icicles and frost worthy of a heavy winter. The sky was a cloudless blue devoid of World-War-II-worthy smoke, and their ears met an eerie, almost lifeless silence that echoed in their ears louder than any German voice or Doberman bark from the previous wood.

Ariel turned to look around the lake, at the now-broken barrier that now lay shattered on the lake around them.

The barrier that she and Miriam had had to try and break through to get to the surface…had been _ice_.

Raphael and Miriam finally noticed the difference in woods as well; their respective blue and green eyes grew as wide as dinner plates, and Raphael's mouth dropped open like that of a large mouth bass.

"Where…where_are_ we?" he choked breathlessly.

In a mansion in the English countryside of the world that Raphael, Miriam and Ariel had just left, a little girl jumped out of a wardrobe, calling out to her three siblings that she had just had tea with a faun in a land blanketed by snow and ice.


	3. Chapter 2: A Prophetic Return

**_Chapter Two: A Prophetic Return_**

The silence between Raphael, Miriam and Ariel made an almost sickeningly vibrating sensation in their ears with them being in that strange, silent wood. Such a silence was one that could only be short-lived, for even a single moment of it seemed to stretch horribly and make the three children feel sick and afraid.

"…Toto…I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," Miriam spoke first breathlessly.

Raphael seemed to shove sense back into himself at the Gypsy speaking, for he glared at her and growled, "Oh yes, perfect time for a _joke_, Dorothy Gale. If you're finished referencing silly children's stories, perhaps we can figure out how on earth we got to this place and how we can get _back_."

"_Who_ was the one who was focusing on the Nazis getting his hide after two girls saved his life again?" snapped Miriam. 

Raphael had looked ready to fight back, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he noticed Ariel looking at the trees around them with an odd amount of fixation.

Ariel wasn't quite sure why she was so uneasy. It wasn't really the woods themselves, even, although the silence of it was very unnerving. Some strange voice inside of her just seemed to be murmuring caution in her ear, keeping her as alert as a dog. She couldn't quite explain it, but…somehow she felt as though they were not alone. 

"Um…Ariel?" Raphael's voice came from behind her. 

Then, rather abruptly and without really knowing why the reflex came to her with as much vigor as it did, Ariel grabbed a fallen tree branch off the ground and moved in front of her companions as if protecting them. The action surprised both Miriam and Raphael, since little Ariel acting protective towards them, particularly when she was both younger and quite a bit shorter, seemed a bit silly. 

"There's something there," the redhead murmured, her voice very tense, holding the branch like a sword.

Miriam, who seemed more likely the one out of them who would pick up suspicious activity considering her Gypsy heritage, looked very perplexed. "What? I didn't hear-"

Ariel shushed her, looking very scared as her brown eyes continued to dart around. There was something close to them, she knew it…she wasn't quite sure _how_ she knew it, but somehow she did, and both that knowledge and the sudden appearance of this strange sense was making her very nervous. 

"Ariel,_really_," Raphael stated in a reproachful attempt at a calming manner, "you probably just heard an animal or something. You shouldn't let strange woods like this scare you-"

After Raphael's words, several things happened at once. First Miriam heard a twig snap, and in a single instant, she also moved forward as if to defend from the threat; Raphael cried out in surprise as out of the bush leapt a red and white blur that landed on a rock in front of the three. 

Then there was a silence, in which Ariel, Miriam and Raphael stared at the intruder.

It was a fox. 

The realization made the children all involuntarily relax: Raphael even laughed out of sheer relief.

"Ah…see? What did I say? It's just a fox, it's nothing to worry about…"

"But…" Miriam murmured darkly, "if it's nothing to worry about…why is it _staring_ at us like that?"

For the fox was indeed looking at them quite intently, with eyes that seemed quite concerned, curious and suspicious to be purely animal in nature. The dark brown orbs almost seemed to belong to a man…in fact, for a moment Ariel was almost reminded of her intellectual and insightful father's eyes, which she had not dwelled on in quite some time. 

At first none of the three made a movement toward the creature; it was innocent Ariel who moved after a moment, despite Miriam and Raphael's apparent concern and in-sync actions as if to pull her back. 

Ariel bent down to get on the fox's level, trying to look friendly. 

"Um…hello there," she greeted the animal in the kind fashion you would use around a small child. "What are you doing here?"

The fox looked at Ariel with a glint in its eyes an awful lot like suspicion. 

"I could ask you the same question."

Raphael, Ariel and Miriam all visibly recoiled in immense surprise, their eyes bulging. The words were said by a dry, male voice…and that voice had come not from a new human arrival, but from the fox itself. The fox, as I'm quite sure you realized, was in fact a _talking_ fox.

"Well now, you _are_ surprised," the Fox noted with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, flicking his tail behind him in a similar manner to that of a man casually crossing his arms. "So it is true that in the humans' world, Talking Beasts no longer exist. How very interesting."

Raphael still hadn't quite recovered from his shock; when he spoke, he could only let out stammers. "B-b-but…f-f…this is…what in the name of…?"

"You can _talk_?" Miriam said in amazement.

"Obviously," the Fox answered coolly. 

Ariel, still on her knees beside the Fox, was the first to fully recover from her shock, mostly since she was still young enough that her childhood love of fairy tales hadn't quite been overrun by teenage angst and realism. She looked at the Fox and gave him a sheepish smile.

"I'm sorry, sir, we only just arrived in this place…though I really am not quite sure how we arrived here to begin with," she confessed weakly. 

The Fox, were he a man, would've raised an eyebrow. "So I can assume."

He looked around at the trees with guarded eyes, before returning his focus to each of them in turn as he murmured, "It is not safe to speak here. Let us move further in, and we may be able to answer some of each other's questions."

The Fox turned and started walking back into the brush. Ariel got to her feet and was about to follow, but Miriam grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't act stupid," the Gypsy muttered. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Ariel looked at her in slight surprise. "Stupid? He offered to help us."

"But how do we know we can trust him?" Miriam pressed.

"We don't," Raphael answered, sounding more like himself again but yet sounding a little wiser than fussy, "but he's the only thing we've encountered yet in this strange place, and we do need answers. It's better than sticking it out here in the middle of the woods alone with no idea where we are."

Miriam still didn't look quite convinced, but she sighed and consented, "Fine…but at the first sign of trouble-"

"Are you coming or what?" the Fox's voice rang out from ahead of them when he realized they weren't following him.

"Coming!" Ariel called back, before running to catch up with him. 

"Ariel, wait up!"

The other two ran after her, inwardly hoping that the little Jewish girl's innocently rash decision wouldn't get them into severe trouble.

The Fox led them through the forest, with his path including nimble jumps over rocks and fallen trees that took the children longer to surmount as they followed him through the ice-laden forest. Of all the children, Miriam had the least trouble following the Fox. Ariel, although she was not as quick to overcome the obstacles as Miriam was, still remained determined and focused in her journey. Unfortunately Raphael had immense trouble and lagged quite a ways behind, considering that he, as an intellectual and prosperous heir to a fortune, rarely went through any sort of rugged terrain. He claimed, however, that his slow pace was due to him "observing the scenery."

At last the Fox stopped in front of a tall, thin stone leaning against the side of a hill about the size of a very tall man and waited for the children to catch up to him. When Ariel reached the place, she noticed that the stone acted as an almost-door, hiding the entrance to a den.

"Is this where you live, Mr. Fox?" the redhead asked the Fox politely.

"It's where I rest my head, yes," the Fox answered dryly, still being careful to keep his voice low as if afraid of being overheard. "Right now it's not as safe to only live in one place."

Ariel frowned, remembering the Nazis and the barking dogs that had been chasing them only a little while ago. Miriam, noticing Ariel's expression, crossed her arms and nodded. 

"We know _exactly_ what you mean." 

Finally Raphael caught up to them; at first he'd looked relieved, but upon realizing he went all this way to go inside of a dugout den, his face fell significantly. 

The Fox leapt onto his hind legs so his front paws could push the door-like rock aside and open the den to the three children. One by one they ducked their heads to fit through the short door and straightened up to look fully around at the inside of the den.

The den was definitely cozier than anything the three had visualized it would be. Beside the entrance to the den there was a dugout fireplace adorned with dark brick, and to the far side of the den, there were Arabian pillows on the floor in a circle around a low wooden table where a small group might sit and eat. All along the wall hung frozen fish and strips of meat that likely could be heated up very quickly. What caught the three children's attention, however, was how everything in the den was easily transportable were one to leave in a hurry and relocate elsewhere. 

"Welcome to my humble abode," the Fox spoke more loudly than he had been before after he pushed the stone back in front of the door, whether for privacy or for capturing the three children one couldn't tell. "We won't be staying here long, but in this small amount of time that we have, hopefully everything we need to determine will be placed on the table."

With that the Fox sat on the largest red pillow around the table. Ariel was the second to follow suit and sit on a small gold pillow to his left, and Miriam, who took a dark green pillow to the fox's right, followed her. Finally Raphael put down his pride and took the final dark blue pillow across from the Fox.

"Now, first things first," the Fox stated in a deadly serious tone, "who are you, and how did you get into Narnia?"

"'_Narnia'_?" Miriam repeated, looking confused. "Is that the name of this place?"

"I've heard of no such country," Raphael said reproachfully, crossing his arms. "And certainly not of such a country you can get to by almost drowning in a lake."

Ariel gave both of them a child's attempt of a reproachful look, before answering the Fox's first question. 

"I'm Ariel Lasan, sir…and this is Miriam Hadil and Raphael Meir. We're…not quite sure how we got here to…_'Narnia,'_Miriam and I were just trying to save Raphael back in France when we-"

The Fox held up a paw to stop her mid-sentence, his dark brown eyes narrowing at Raphael. "…You appeared here because of this Son of Adam?"

"Don't you blame this on _me_," Raphael snapped in Ariel's direction. "If it were not for Miriam being an nitwit and pulling us into that lake-"

"How was _I_ supposed to know you were a wuss who couldn't swim?" retorted Miriam.

"_Stop it_!" Ariel implored in a slightly whiny fashion when Raphael had opened his mouth to answer. "Fighting won't get us anywhere!"

Raphael and Miriam both looked at her in slight irritation, before Raphael gave a great huff, crossed his arms and returned his focus to the Fox as the creature spoke again.

"What I meant to ask was…you two Daughters of Eve jumped into the water in your world because you wished to rescue this Son of Adam, Raphael, and _this_ is how you were brought here?"

"…Yes," Miriam answered after a short pause, as if she wasn't sure whether to be regretful of the decision.

"Hmm."

The Fox pondered this, his tail flicking back and forth behind him with the air of a man stroking his beard in thought. 

Ariel, placing her hands with fingers folded down on the low table, glanced at the stone blocking the entrance to the cave. 

"Mr. Fox, sir," she said at last, "if you don't mind me asking…are you being watched?"

Raphael and Miriam seemed surprised that naïve Ariel could ask such a good question. 

"Hmm, yes," murmured Miriam, glancing at the Fox out of the corner of her eye. "You seemed awfully paranoid while we were outside."

The Fox sighed grimly. "I can't be too careful, sad to say…all the creatures in Narnia are being watched, at all places and at all times. It just depends on which trees are watching you, and who for."

"_Trees_?" Raphael repeated, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Most of the trees are against the White Witch, solely because her cruelty has made it almost impossible for them to prosper," the Fox explained, "but some still have a reason to report to her…and it's impossible to know which trees those are."

"Hold on a moment," Miriam interrupted smoothly, "who's the White Witch?"

The Fox gave her an incredulously disgusted look. "By the Lion, you humans _are_ naïve."

Then he gained a more serious, but still rather dull tone as he started to explicate, 

"The White Witch, otherwise known as Jadis, calls herself the Queen of Narnia. Ever since she conquered Narnia a hundred years ago, she has held our country in her icy fist, making it always winter here…always winter, but never Christmas. Today she has huge armies of demons and ghouls at her disposal, and most that hate her are too afraid to fight against her, for the sake of their families and for themselves. Her Captain of the Guard, Maugrim, and his Secret Police disposes of all that attempt to stand against her, and those who Maugrim doesn't kill are brought to the Witch herself so that she can turn them into stone statues and let them waste away in her palace. At least that is what we have heard from _legend_…no one outside of the Witch's control has ever entered that castle and come out again."

All three of the children, despite themselves, felt as though the cold weather outside was freezing them with fear at the mere thought of this terrible Queen. Ariel vaguely thought of the dynamic, horrible Führer that had been the stuff of nightmares for Johan, Ulrich and her the last few years, and wondered if such people were something that originated in the court of this "Jadis."

"She doesn't sound like a Queen at all," fiery Miriam muttered under her breath. "She sounds like a foul, evil witch."

Ariel nodded, her brown eyes very worried, and Raphael's eyes narrowed as he spoke in response to Miriam's words. 

"For once, I'd have to agree with you…is there no resistance being rallied against this despot, Mr. Fox?"

"Oh, there is," the Fox replied, "but it is a very secret one. Fortunately…there has been a cluster of signs recently that has given hope and strength in this resistance. The first was discovered by the faun Tumnus, just a week ago…the second was learned by the centaur Oreius, just a day ago…and the third…"

The Fox gave an expression rather like a wry smile as he peered around at each of the children in turn. 

"…The third was found by me, just today."

Ariel blinked curiously. "What did you and your friends find, Mr. Fox? If you don't mind me asking, I mean."

The Fox looked at her with something much like amusement. "Ha, of course not, Daughter of Eve! Such interest in this time of secretiveness and fear is almost refreshing."

His voice became much more dramatic and somber as he told the three, "The faun Tumnus discovered the first human to be in Narnia since the death of Narnia's Queen Swanwhite a hundred years ago…a young Daughter of Eve by the name of Lucy Pevensie."

The Fox said the name as if waiting to see if it sparked a reaction from any of the children. It didn't. 

"…I'm afraid we don't know her, Mr. Fox," Miriam answered. "Did she fall into the same lake as us?" 

The Fox shook his furry red head. "From what I understand, Tumnus found the Daughter of Eve in the woods near the Lantern Waste…quite a ways from here."

"This Pevensie girl could be from anywhere in our world, then," Raphael commented, "if she didn't use the same entrance that we did. She could be across the Atlantic Ocean or east of Poland, for all we know."

"Well, no matter," the Fox dismissed the matter. "The important part of this sign is that the Daughter of Eve Lucy Pevensie allegedly has two brothers and one sister."

"How is that important?" asked Miriam, looking puzzled.

"It's important because of an old Narnian prophecy," the Fox explained, before he recited solemnly,  
"'_When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone  
Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,  
The evil time will be over and done.'_"

"Throne?" repeated Miriam, frowning in thought. "So…it's said this _'evil time'_ will end when Narnia is ruled again by humans?"

"Exactly," the Fox replied, "only not just any humans…they must be two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve, born of the same family, who will lead us in a battle against the White Witch and restore peace to Narnia."

"Two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve," murmured Ariel. "You mean like Lucy Pevensie and her sister and two brothers?"

"Precisely," answered the Fox.

Raphael looked very skeptical still, but decided to press on. "What of this centaur…Oreius? What _'sign'_ did he discover?"

"General Oreius, as is traditional with centaurs, is well-versed in reading the stars," said the Fox, "and his star-reading has announced something we Talking Beasts, Centaurs, Dryads and Naiads have wished to hear for _years_…"

His voice became a little quieter, and the foxy smile on his face became more pronounced as he revealed the next sign with the manner of one telling a juicy secret.

"Aslan is on the move."

The words couldn't possibly have such an effect on someone who had never heard of this "Aslan"…and yet, somehow, the words made immense, strong feelings bubble up inside of each of the children, foreign feelings that they couldn't explain. Ariel suddenly felt immensely at peace, and quietly triumphant, like the feeling one might have after running to the top of a tall hill to see the beautiful view of a valley below. Miriam felt the same sort of proud happiness one might feel after finishing a wonderful performance and being showered with applause and flowers. Raphael felt as though he was infused with new bravery and strength, enough to fight a million battles.

And it was Raphael, the most logical of the three, who broke enough out of his trance to ask the Fox, "Who is Aslan?"

The Fox looked appalled. "Who is-? You _don't know_?"

Ariel and Miriam shook their heads.

"Aslan's Mane," swore the Fox, sounding exceedingly impatient, "he only created the life in Narnia with his own breath. He's only the one who brought us our first human rulers. He is only the King of the whole wood…the King above _all_ kings."

"You're making him sound like Jesus," Miriam commented dully.

"Who?"

"Never mind," Miriam muttered quickly.

"So what you mean to say is," Raphael stated, as if trying to get all of these new facts straight, "this _'Aslan,'_ the founder of Narnia, is coming back here? Where has he been?"

"Who knows? He hasn't been in Narnia for a very long time, since before the Witch came," the Fox responded. "But we, the movement against the White Witch, know that now he is near the Stone Table, waiting for the rest of us to arrive."

"The Stone Table?" Miriam repeated. "Is that far from here?"

"I'll show you," answered the Fox.

He got up from the table and yanked a large map of Narnia down from the wall with his teeth so he could bring it back over to the table for the three children to see. The map was drawn on some aged parchment and showed the whole of Narnia and small parts of several countries: Ettinsmoor to the North, Archenland to the South and several islands on a sea to the east. There were many clusters of trees with red labels like _"Shuttering Woods,"_ a Great River through the center of the country with smaller rivers branching out from it and several mountain ranges to the north, west and south. Ariel immediately noticed a castle with ice-like turrets drawn at the very north of Narnia labeled _"Witch's Castle," _and after that found the drawn monument with a table labeled _"Stone Table"_ only a little west of the sea.

"We are here," the Fox stated, his paw gesturing to a small black dot right beside Glasswater Creek before brushing up the parchment to point to the symbol of the Stone Table. "And the Stone Table is here. Probably a day trek on foot without stop…a day and a half, perhaps, were one to desire to make camp at night."

His thumb and pointer finger resting on his mouth thoughtfully, Raphael traced the path on the map again, resting on a drawing of what looked like a canyon with the red label _"Gorge of Griffins."_

"It looks like we have to go through this gorge in order to get there," the French teenager commented.

"Yes, we will, Son of Adam," responded the Fox, "and we'll have to be careful about it too: if there is one creature you don't want to mess with, it's a griffin."

"Are they on the Witch's side too?" asked Miriam. 

"Oh no," said the Fox. "They have been hiding in the caves of the gorge for a hundred years, to hide from the Witch, who would otherwise destroy their kind. Legend well establishes, though, that griffins are very proud, unpredictable and rebellious, and above all, don't feel any fondness toward the creatures that remained above ground after the Witch's arrival, so we'll be avoiding them. Supposedly the griffins a hundred years ago found us Talking Beasts, Centaurs, Dryads and Naiads to be cowards who crow about fighting for our country and then not do so…" the Fox growled just thinking about this. "Damn hypocrites, the lot of them. At least we don't_hide_."

Raphael seemed to be in agreement, but Miriam seemed to take offense at the idea. 

"Hiding doesn't always mean _cowardice_!" the Gypsy snapped. "My family and I had to go into hiding for what we are too! The griffins probably just did what they thought was right…and I don't blame them one bit, with that Witch being as horrible as she is!"

Ariel kept the Fox and Raphael from starting an argument with Miriam by speaking first in a passive, but optimistic fashion. 

"Everyone does things their own way…we shouldn't fight about whose kind of protection is right. What matters is that you're protecting yourselves and your families from the same thing, right?"

The Fox gave Ariel a very closed look, as though he was thinking hard about something, before he commented, "That actually is quite wise of a thing to say, Daughter of Eve."

Ariel blinked in faint confusion. "Oh…really?"

Raphael rolled his eyes at her naiveté; even though Ariel may have sounded wise for a moment, it certainly didn't change the fact that she was a little girl with a huge imagination and not a very broad knowledge about the world. 

"I realize that we've gotten severely off-topic, Mr. Fox," Raphael stated seriously, "but you also said that _your_ discovery was rather important."

Ariel had obviously forgotten this, for she said curiously, "Oh yeah…what_did_ you find, Mr. Fox?"

Miriam and Raphael gave her slightly degrading looks as though she had asked if the Tooth Fairy was real. Mr. Fox seemed surprised Ariel had to ask.

"Why, you three, of course. You think three humans suddenly appearing out of a creek would be considered normal in _any_ land?"

"Well, no," Miriam granted. "But why are we so important? We're not related to Lucy Pevensie, it's not like we're the kings and queens you guys are so desperate to find."

"No," the Fox assented, "but there is another legend that we Talking Beasts have known and have watched out for, as a sign that Aslan is coming to help us start the war and defeat the Witch once and for all."

"_War_?" repeated Ariel, looking very anxious at the thought of fighting. "You mean…your resistance wants to go to _war_ against the White Witch?"

'_Just when I thought we'd gotten __away__ from the war,'_ she thought miserably, thinking of the Nazis that had been chasing them back in France. 

"What is this legend, Mr. Fox?" Miriam inquired.

"Long ago," the Fox told the tale with an air that prompted Ariel again to think of her well-read father, "when Aslan first created Narnia and its creatures and planted the Tree of Protection with the apple fetched by Lord Digory and Lady Polly, the first humans to be brought here, there was a lion cub that followed Aslan wherever he went that has since been known as the Heir of Aslan. The cub saw the heroism of Lord Digory and Lady Polly and spoke to Aslan of its desire to see the world without magic…the World of Men. Aslan allowed the cub to leave Narnia and experience life in that world, but on the condition that one day the cub would return to aid Narnia when it was in the most need. The cub agreed, and left Narnia in the form of a shooting star of gold to become a human with no memory of its destiny. Only when it returned to Narnia accompanied by the two holy guardians Aslan already had placed in position in the World of Men would the lion cub know its true purpose as protector of Narnia."

A short silence followed this story, before Raphael crossed his arms and responded with a raised eyebrow and slightly dull tone.

"I'm afraid you haven't explained why this little fairy tale is essential for us to know, Mr. Fox."

The Fox looked at Raphael in scornful amazement. "My, and you came across to me as _smart_, Son of Adam. Aslan's Heir is the soul of a lion reborn as a human, who Aslan was supposed to bring back to Narnia when we had the need. We are in need, for we are beginning the ultimate battle against the White Witch…and you were brought through the water in your world to us during this time, accompanied by these two Daughters of Eve who felt the impulse to protect and guard you."

Raphael, Miriam and Ariel's eyes all went very wide.

"You're…you're trying to say…" Raphael stammered in disbelief.

The Fox nodded to him. "Welcome back, Heir of Aslan."


	4. Chapter 3: Claiming of Roles

**_Chapter Three: Claiming of Roles_**

After the disbelieving silence that followed, the child who spoke first was not Raphael, who had just been addressed so grandly, but spunky Miriam, and her voice was as doubtful and offended as her face.

"Are you out of your mind?" the Gypsy snapped, her green eyes torn in their fury between Mr. Fox and Raphael. "_'Protect and guard'…_this _ninny_?"

Raphael's eyes narrowed irritably at the name. The Fox, however, didn't seem fazed in the least.

"It was the fate that Aslan gave you to complete," the creature stated neutrally, as if that settled everything.

The conversation was far from over, however; Raphael didn't seem any keener on the idea than Miriam did.

"I have plenty of things to worry about back home, in _our_ world," he dissented. "The Nazis have no doubt captured my parents, and I'm stuck here, listening to nonsense about being the heir to some all-powerful _'Aslan,'_ who supposedly dragged me through a lake to fight a war against a witch! In case he hasn't noticed, we're already _part_ of a war; we don't need another!"

"One that obviously you're going to let the Nazis win," Miriam growled at Raphael, and the French teenager gave her a fierce look in response as she turned back on the Fox. "This wretch was more than willing to give both Ariel's _and_ my lives to killers to save his own skin! Why the hell should I help protect him?"

"Because this country needs us."

The two turned to Ariel.

Her voice was much quieter than the others' had been, and very passive in sound, but it carried enough for everyone to easily hear. The redhead's face was very sad, with her child-like brown eyes rippling like a miserable puppy's as they glanced down at her hands clasped in her lap.

"We couldn't do anything," Ariel said weakly. "Back in our world, we couldn't do anything to help Johan and Ulrich and Mr. and Mrs. Meir…"

She looked up, her eyes filled with a very weak flash of resolve as she looked pleadingly at Miriam, then Raphael.

"…But I know they'd want us to do the right thing, were they here! This country, Narnia…needs help, and we can give to them…so why _don't_ we?"

Raphael's face had lost some of its anger at Ariel's fragile words, but remained reproachful in his answer.

"Ariel, this isn't our world, our war. We have nothing to gain from winning, and from what I'm gathering, getting involved pretty much _guarantees_ our deaths. Besides, girls are in no position to be in a war, especially little girls like you-"

"You're not so big yourself, ninny," retorted Miriam.

"_Stop it_," Ariel pleaded when the two of them exchanged a glare. "The point is that Aslan sent for us. He's obviously really important here…and if he wanted us to help, then he has a good reason. And if you're really his heir-"

"That is preposterous," Raphael interrupted with a frustrated sigh. "Do I look like a lion to you? I am human, and I never was anything _but_ human."

"But…if you have no memory of what you were, like the story said-" Ariel started hesitantly.

"Ariel, even if this ninny _was_ a lion, he certainly isn't one now," Miriam muttered. "I don't care if he wants to go off and die…but I have no interest in risking _my_ life for something so pointless."

"Whether you decide to fight or not, Heir of Aslan…Daughters of Eve," the Fox cut the tension in the air with a cool tone, prompting all three of the children to look at him, "the White Witch will want you disposed of. Your being here threatens her hold over our land and its creatures, so no matter what you do, your lives will be in jeopardy. But…were you to be with Aslan…his presence would protect you, and you fighting alongside him could give our cause, and Narnia, a fighting chance in defeating the Witch's evil."

There was a silence, in which Miriam glanced at each of the other three out of the corner of her eye in turn, and Ariel carefully watched Raphael as he looked down at the floor, thinking.

Then, at last, logical Raphael gave a great sigh and responded, "Well, I suppose were there to be anyone who could get us home at all…it would be this _'Aslan.'_ I don't think there would be many others who could get us back besides the one who knows how we got here to begin with."

"So we're going to help them?" Ariel asked eagerly.

"I didn't say _that_," Raphael said coldly. "This war doesn't concern us, and Aslan had no reason bringing us here to fight it without our permission. We simply will go to him, explain the situation we're in, and then request passage home."

Miriam nodded, crossing her arms crankily. "That's the _least_ we deserve, for having to go to such trouble."

Ariel looked very uncertain and upset by this, but didn't feel brave enough to argue with the older two. Besides, she told herself…she _did_ want to save Ulrich and Johan, if she could…and she couldn't do that here. All the same, part of her really wished that she could help these creatures somehow with their fight against the White Witch. After all, no one deserved to have to tolerate the pain they obviously had to go through, being trapped in an eternal winter.

The Fox didn't look entirely pleased by the three children's decision, but reacted as though he didn't think he could convince them otherwise.

"If that is your choice, Heir of Aslan…I will aid you where I can," the furry red creature stated seriously, getting up from his pillow and starting to pull down some of the meat and fish from the wall with his teeth.

He then added a bit more coldly, "I must say, however…I am disappointed."

Raphael gave him a look that held similar coldness. "I'm sorry…but I am not whatever savior you were so looking forward to. I have no interest in _being_ a savior, either."

Ariel glanced at the French teenager's back hesitantly as he moved to wrap some of the meat up in a knapsack, before tying it up and hoisting it onto his back.

"…All I care about is getting back to my parents, and that's it."

And Ariel wished for a moment that she could be steadfast and passionate as Raphael, so that she could only worry about helping her parents too. Despite the wish, however, she couldn't help but want to protect the creatures here from such a cruel ruler as the White Witch, and wondered vaguely if, here in this world of talking animals and magical creatures, she'd be any better at protecting anyone than she would otherwise.

'_Oh well,'_ she thought, thinking to herself more positively. _'I'll just do my best to help! I can't do much else…'_

At the same moment a lion moved from a scarlet tent to look up at the sky rippling with snowflakes, and shook his mane in quiet satisfaction so that star-like twinkles of magic were thrown from his golden fur into the wind, making the airborne snowflakes melt in an instant. He knew of the arrivals, and the country he created already started to slowly lighten along with him.

* * *

Once the group was finished packing, Raphael, Miriam and Ariel had knapsacks on their backs filled with the strips of meat and fish, rope, bandages, and other such essentials. Each of the children also had grabbed a blanket to wrap around themselves as a type of coat, for they were still dressed in sopping wet clothes that clung to their frames in ice cold layers. Ariel vaguely wondered if the water in her dress would freeze and she would become a human icicle.

Her fingers numb with cold as she clung the dull yellow blanket around herself, Ariel moved to the entrance of the den that now let in the cold since the door-like stone had been removed where the Fox was waiting for them. When she made as if to leave the den, however, the Fox stopped her.

"Be more cautious, Daughter of Eve," he warned, his left paw held out in front of her feet, before he put his paw back on the ground and started to walk into the snow, talking back over his shoulder to the three children. "I shall go first, to scout out danger. You stay here."

With those words, the Animal left the warmth of his home. Ariel was not very happy at hanging behind; her face held a very large pout, her brown eyes shining like an upset puppy as she glanced out at the white landscape.

"If it's dangerous for us, it's probably dangerous for Mr. Fox too," she mumbled to herself.

Miriam, wrapped in a light brown blanket of her own, came up behind of Ariel and, after looking as though debating the action, at last placed a reluctant hand on the younger girl's shoulder.

"Don't worry about him, Ariel. He fits right in around here…just like all of the _'Aryans'_ do back in our world."

She then eyed the chestnut-brown-blanketed Raphael with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Except here, _you're_ a subject of persecution too. Were it not for us in risk of losing our lives if we don't work together to get to that _'Aslan,'_ I'd almost be pleased there's some justice for you in that sense."

This earned her a rather fierce glare from Raphael. "You're forgetting that here we are being persecuted because it is prophesized our kind will defeat the ruler of this country. It's because we're a _threat_, not because people dislike us for cultural reasons."

"It doesn't matter what sort of petty reason is tagged onto persecution," Miriam retorted, her voice biting. "All it achieves is pain for the persecuted and a fake sense of superiority for the persecutor, and those who let it happen are just as pathetic as those who start it."

Ariel couldn't listen to Miriam and Raphael's argument; she barely noticed when she tuned out their voices. All she could focus on for the moment was the swirling flurry of snow into which Mr. Fox had darted into, to scout for possible dangers to her, Miriam and Raphael. The dark wood of the trees seemed to go in a continuous pattern beyond the white specks filling the air, making it look like a long, dark tunnel one might be afraid to venture into for the lack of a clear end. And as endless as the ice-laden woods were, the freezing cold of the winter was unrelenting.

The redhead shivered under her worn blanket, breathing into her cupped hands to try to keep them warm.

'_I wonder…if Queen Jadis is truly as cold as her winter,'_ she contemplated absently, before she thought in a rather innocently upset manner, _'I hope she doesn't outlaw snowball fights! …Not that I'd really want to be part of one right now,'_ she added inwardly, shivering again as a blast of cold wind ripped through her.

"People don't have to get into every little cultural dispute that goes on," Raphael continued to argue with Miriam. "Contrary to your beliefs, there are other things to worry about _besides_ people's oversensitive feelings!"

"Of course you'd say so, considering how insensitive _you_ are!" Miriam snapped back.

"There he is!"

Raphael and Miriam both turned at Ariel's excited cry; the Fox had in fact returned, his dark brown eyes looking serious.

"It appears that the Witch's Secret Police has not yet caught wind of us."

He stopped walking, sitting momentarily outside the burrow in front of the children as he continued, "All the same…we will have to be on our guard, for they are very fast and, unfortunately, can smell just as well as I, being canines themselves."

Ariel's warm brown eyes widened in fear, remembering the Nazis dogs that had almost caught them back in France. "Are they Dobermans?"

The Fox gave a look rather like a man raising an eyebrow; he obviously had never heard of such a creature. "No: _Canis Lupus_…a quite temperamental and deadly foe, particularly when fed by evil magic like the Witch's."

"Kaiun…?" Ariel repeated incorrectly, sounding as confused as the Fox had.

"Wolves," Raphael explicated for Ariel.

Miriam looked incredulous, her green eyes very wide. "You mean to tell us the White Witch has _wolves_ at her disposal?"

"Indeed," the Fox responded, "headed by the most deadly of them all: the Captain of the Guard, Maugrim. With how unarmed you are and how dangerous they are, I'll do everything in my power to keep you three away from them."

"Thank you, Mr. Fox," Ariel said quietly, pulling her blanket closer around her.

The Fox sneezed off-handedly and gave Ariel a smile, and then turned to Raphael.

"Do you have the map, Heir of Aslan?"

Raphael nodded, and took his blanket momentarily away from his form to find the tie on the top of the sack on his shoulder. It was so chilly, however, that his arms and fingers were almost numb without having the blanket around him that he couldn't untie the knot keeping bag closed. His frozen fingers fumbled with the top of the bag, fruitlessly trying to open it and fetch the map, and frustration became more and more apparent on Raphael's face, pink with cold.

Suddenly Raphael found another hand helping his own to untie the knot.

Miriam's tan fingers, as cold as his own, numbly helped Raphael open the bag, allowing him to weakly slip the map out of his bag.

The French teenager looked at the Gypsy girl, to see her green eyes averted in a reluctant and cross way. After a short pause, Raphael likewise glanced away awkwardly, his cheeks pink from the cold as well as from faint embarrassment. Ariel picked up his blanket and gave it back to him in a meekly kind way; Raphael snatched it from her rather rudely, wrapping the chestnut brown cloth around his body again tightly like a bat hiding itself in its wings, and opened the map.

"…You said this path would take us at least a day…correct, Mr. Fox?"

"I did," the Talking Beast recurred, before adding a bit darkly to himself, "and I have a feeling it'll be a very long day at that, considering this human foolishness I no doubt haven't seen the last of…"

Then, getting to his feet with his auburn tail held high, the Fox again began to walk away from the hiding place that was his burrow.

"Come along, younglings. We foxes don't live in packs, so I'm afraid I won't take kindly to stopping for you."

And so the children followed him into the snow, toward the trees of the Magog Forest, which almost blended together to create a single image like an oil painting, unable to be peeled into separate layers. To a possible observer, the small group looked to be just another piece of the artwork, becoming smaller and less clear which each step they took further into the cold black of the mysterious beyond.


End file.
